


Sinew.

by BornofFlame



Series: Accidental Adoption [3]
Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Found Family, Multi, Virgil is a bit wild, emile is concerned, thomas accidently decks virgil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28587843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BornofFlame/pseuds/BornofFlame
Summary: Emile's having a harder time bonding with Virgil than his husbands are.  Luckily, through a series of events, he creates a relationship with him.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders
Series: Accidental Adoption [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079543
Comments: 7
Kudos: 73





	Sinew.

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy!  
> -ky

Emile wasn’t quite sure how to interact with Virgil. The boy had almost immediately developed a close bond with Roman, and Remy’s humor managed to coax him out of that shell…

But Emile?

It’d been almost three months and the most that he could get was a whispered hello when Virgil came home from school. Virgil had entered the kitchen after school, given Remy a hug and then disappeared to his room upstairs while Emile watched.

Once he was sure that the boy was out of earshot, he turned to his husband.

“Am I doing something wrong?”

Remy looked up from his phone and shrugged. “Babes, I doubt it. Virgil’s been through a lot and you told me yourself that it’s pretty unusual for him to have bonded to Ro and I as fast as he did.”

Emile nodded and Remy sighed softly. “Love, he’ll warm up to you, don’t worry.”

…

Nothing really changed after that conversation. Emile worked and tried to talk, Virgil skittishly avoided conversation and sought for Roman when the nightmares got bad. 

Until one late night when Emile couldn’t sleep, so he went to the kitchen to steep some tea and Virgil was already there, carefully boiling some water in a saucepan.

“Hello?” Emile said cautiously. Virgil looked up from the water and waved.

“Hi.”

Emile started. “Oh! Are you making something?”  
Virgil looked at the water and shrugged. “Tea.”

“We have a kettle, would you want to use that?”

Virgil shook his head. “It’s too loud.”

“I didn’t think of that. Do you mind if I join you for a cup?” Emile moved into the kitchen and opened a cabinet to grab mugs and tea.

Virgil nodded. “You can stay… Emile.”

Emile turned and grinned, offering the second mug to Virgil. “Thank you.”

The teen accepted the mug and set it on the counter next to the stove and water. He then climbed up like how Remy often did, making room for Emile. 

“I love late night tea runs like this.” Emile said. Virgil nodded. “Me too.”

They sat in silence while the water came to a boil and Emile watched as Virgil poured half the water in his mug before holding out the saucepan.

“Thank you.” Emile let Virgil deftly fill his mug before he set down the saucepan and accepted the tea box from the therapist.

“Do you do sugar in your tea?” 

Virgil shook his head. “No. I like it plain.”

Emile laughed. “Remy would be appalled at the two of us. I like my tea plain as well.”

Virgil tilted his head. “I thought he drinks coffee?”

“Oh he does. But even then it’s full of more sugar then you can think.” Emile smiled like it was a secret and Virgil smiled back hesitantly.

“So can I ask him about it?”

“Course little garnet.”

…

The next morning, neither pretended that anything had happened, although an early up Roman was very confused as to why there were two mugs in the sink. Emile just gave him a kiss and smiled softly.

The late night meet ups kept happening. Emile (or Virgil) wouldn’t be able to sleep, they’d go into the kitchen and the other would already be waiting with tea ready.

It was a nice night bonding experience, and one that Emile enjoyed.

The next bonding experience happened at work, Emile had had an appointment cancel, but it wasn’t enough time to head home.

He was surprised when Remy frantically called him.

“Babes, do you know where V is?”

“He’s not at school?”

“No! I went to pick him up and he wasn’t there, and I asked a few teachers and no one saw him leave..”

“Remy, breathe.” Emile instructed calmly as he heard his secretary speak up from the hall, her voice coming closer. “Do you think--”

“Dr. Picani? Um, there’s a kid in the foyer for you.”

Emile blinked and put his hand over the speaker on his phone. “What do they look like?”

“Grey eyes, curly hair, uh, I think he’s the kid you and Roman are fostering?”

Emile nodded and uncovered the phone. “I think he walked here.”

“WHAT?”  
“I’ll call you back.”

He hung up before his husband could respond and stood. “Well, let’s go make sure he’s okay.”

Sure enough, Virgil was sitting on the couch, a black eye blooming across one side of his face. Emile hurried over and knelt in front of Virgil.

“Hey, everything okay?”

Virgil mutely shook his head.

Emile reached out a hand to brush it over the bruise. “Did someone at school do this?”

A nod.

“Oh, little garnet. Were you nervous about how Remy was going to react?”

“He yells sometimes.”

“He does, but never at you. He’s a very loud person. Can I call him and let him know that you’re safe?”

“Okay.”

One quick, but loud call later, Remy was informed and Virgil was bundled in blankets as Emile carefully helped him place an ice pack on his face.

“Do you want to tell me who did it?”

“Uh… It wasn’t on purpose.”

“Okay.”

“So I have a friend Quil and she told me that I should go talk to my crush, Thomas and so I did, but he was acting kind of nervous and so he punched me.” Virgil’s words came out in a rush and Emile nodded.

“Okay. That’s one of the more interesting injuries I’ve ever heard. Are your feet okay from walking here? My office is like five miles from the school.”

“Oh, I rode the bus.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t that hard, I just asked an old lady at a stop to help me here.”

“Little garnet, I understand that you’re fourteen, but we need to have a bus safety conversation.”

Virgil shook his head. “Dad taught me how to ride the bus when I was twelve.”

“Okay, but if you want a bus pass, you tell us, we’ll happily get you one. And maybe we do a review of some rules, like you have to tell one of us where you’re going, even if it’s just through text.”

“Okay Mom.”

Emile didn’t notice the term until Remy was picking Virgil up from the office, a relieved smile on his face as he hugged their adopted kid.

“You’re lucky that you didn’t run to the hospital. Roman’s been in a surgery for a few hours, he wouldn't have been able to make sure you were safe.” Remy looked at Emile and mouthed a thank you as he sternly pulled Virgil out of the hug to hold him by the shoulders. “You scared me.”

“Mom made sure I was okay.”

Remy raised his eyebrows. “Mom?”

Virgil turned and pointed at Emile. “Emile.”

“Alright then, let’s go, we’ll see Emile at dinner.”

Remy led the teen out and the therapist was left to wonder why Virgil had called him ‘Mom’ when in his previous home, he hadn’t had a mother.

...

The next time was an early Saturday morning when Virgil came creeping out of his room to find Emile on the couch eating the sugary cereal that he hid from his husbands.

It was his cereal, and it was reserved for morning cartoons. Nevertheless, Virgil found him and plopped himself on the seat next to Emile to snuggle in.

“What are you watching Mom?”

“Miraculous Ladybug. Disney Channel’s running it.” Emile turned up the volume a bit so that Virgil wouldn’t have to rely on the subtitles like he was.

“Cool.”

“Yep.”

They watched an episode in silence before Emile had the courage to speak up.

“Vee?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you call me Mom?”

Virgil stiffened a bit. “I dunno.”

Emile sighed softly and set aside his empty bowl so he could run a hand through Virgil’s hair. “I like it, you can keep doing it if you want.”

Virgil nodded. “Thanks Mom.”

Emile pressed a kiss to his forehead. “ _ Thank you _ little garnet.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey, my fic got put in a contest *dances a lil jig*
> 
> Here's the link, go check out everyone else's stuff, there's some pretty great fics there! [here's a link!](https://kieraelieson.tumblr.com/post/639530100479639552/found-family-fic-contest)
> 
> (also, please for the love of god, comment)


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